


The Valentine's Day Curse

by amycooper



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2017-02-24
Packaged: 2018-09-26 02:51:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9858800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amycooper/pseuds/amycooper
Summary: John and Rodney tend to have bad luck on Valentine's Day.





	1. The First Valentine's Day

“…but seriously Carson, I can walk. Kind of.” John whined as Carson and two nurses carted him towards the infirmary.

  
“Not with that ankle,” Carson retorted.

  
True, he had to lean on both Ronon and Teyla and hop back towards the gate. Ronon kept threatening to carry him. They were only a half an hour into the mission and hadn’t even made it to the village, when John tripped on the rabbit hole and twisted his ankle badly. It was a bit embarrassing really.

  
“It could be broken. Do you think it’s broken?” Rodney fretted from behind.

  
“It’s not broken,” John said, frowned, then wiggled his toes. “Not broken.”

“Aye, probably a sprain,” Carson said, then turned back towards Rodney. “Why are you even here, Rodney?”

  
“I got a cut, see, on my finger.” Rodney held up his finger as if Carson would inspect it as they were wheeling John to the infirmary.

  
Carson turned back to John just in time for the Colonel to see him roll his eyes. “It’s a wee cut, Rodney. Barely broke flesh.”

  
“But it could get infected, “ Rodney said, plopping himself on a bed next John as they set him up. “Who knows what diseases they might have on that planet. It could be infected by some sort of flesh eating disease. Oh God, it might have some sort of horrible flesh eating disease. I can’t lose my finger, Carson.”

  
Carson rolled his eyes, “I’m going to do an x-ray to rule out any fracture.” He announced to John before leaving.

  
Now alone, John sat up, wiggled his toes and flinched, then turned to Rodney, who was slowly swinging his legs off the bed. “Why are you here?”

  
“As I said, who knows what-” He cut himself off when he saw John narrow his eyes at him. “Fine,” He mumbled. “First Valentine’s Day together.”

  
John smirked.

  
“See! That! That’s just the kind of thing that’ll get the nurses all over you. I leave you for three minutes and just wait, I’ll come back to find you, covered by-”

  
“Oh God,” John groaned. Sure he took far too long to come to terms with his own feelings for Rodney, but when would Rodney realize he was serious. They were serious.

  
“Yeah,” Rodney hopped off the bed. “You okay? Can I get you something? Is the pain getting worse? Do you need Carson?”

  
“As soon as I’m released, I’m kicking your ass.” John said, “or maybe fucking you. I’m not really sure yet, okay?”

  
Rodney nodded, uncharacteristically mutely. John smiled cheekily as he watched Carson return.


	2. The Second Valentine’s Day

Rodney radiated annoyance as he stomped to sickbay.  John, still holding the blood-soaked bandage over his shoulder, rolled his eyes.  All the way back to the gate Rodney bitched that of course today he had to get himself injured.  His rant oddly punctuated by shoots from the villagers and their own return fire.  Fortunately most of the locals stopped pursuing once they were past the outlying fields.  Those that remained in pursuit seemed to be there more as a half-hearted reminder not to dally.  

“How was I to know it was a sacred statue?”  John finally said as they wheeled him into sickbay.

“How often have I told you to not touch anything.” Rodney retorted.  He stood there, arms crossed and, unlike last year, without even the pretense of injury.

John hissed as Carson lifted the bandage, revealing the nasty slash underneath.

“You’re lucky, Colonel, it  doesn’t look that deep,” Carson said.  “Some antibiotics and a few stitches and we should be able to see you on your way.”

Carson started to leave to get the supplies he needed before he stopped and raised a finger at Rodney.  “Don’t you give my patient a hard time, or I’ll send you out, Valentine’s Day or not.”

Rodney started.  Carson chuckled and left.

“You told him?” Rodney said, jumping onto the bed next to John. 

“No,” John paused, “but are you really surprised he figured out it though?”

“Hm…” Rodney said in thought.  The two had told Teyla and Ronon six months ago only to learn that the pair had figured it out well beforehand.  “I guess we aren’t as discrete as we think we are.”

“Well…”John said, dragging the word out, “ever since we’ve begun seeing each other, you’ve been following me to sickbay if I have so much as a sneeze, so yeah.”

Rodney was silent for a beat.

“You know you did this last year,” he sulked.

“What, got stabbed?”

“No, got hurt.  You spent half the day in the infirmary and the next four weeks with a walking cast.  We spent the day icing your foot.”

John grinned perking up.  “If I recall, you found some fun new things to do with the ice.”

“Yeah, until I accidentally jarred your foot.”

“Look, I’ll be better soon.  You heard Carson.  Couple of stitches and I’m all yours.”

“You just better now get injured again next year,” Rodney replied.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've finished this story and will likely put it up two chapters at a time over the next couple of days.


	3. The Third Valentine’s Day

John sat in chair next to the infirmary bed, silently clutching a styrofoam cup full of cold coffee.  The room was quiet, except it really wasn’t.  There was the slow but thankfully now steady beeps which represented each of Rodney’s heartbeats.  There was the click-psshhh of the ventilator.  Carson’s voice could occasionally be heard amid the steady hum of the infirmary just beyond the curtains that Carson had thoughtfully closed for privacy.  But no sound came from Rodney, who didn’t even sleep quietly.  It wasn’t right.

John yelped, registering something unexpectedly cold and wet on his hands.  Looking down he realized he broke the styrofoam cup, cold coffee spilling on his hands and legs.  He cursed.

And out of nowhere Elizabeth was handing him a cloth to clean up, followed by another cup of coffee, still hot, and a sandwich.  She took a seat next to him once he had settled down.

And for a while they sat in silence: 

Beep.  

Beep.  

Click-psshhh.

Beep.

Beep.  

Click-psshhh.

Beep.

“This is my fault.”

“Don’t say that John.”

“I should have gauged the situation better.  I should have payed more attention to the trader’s apprentice.  I should have-”

“John-”

“I should have been hit,” John put the cup down next to the uneaten sandwich and leaned his head into his hands.  “They were aiming at me.  It should have been me.  Rodney, he-he was being so stupidly overprotective today.  He saw, when I-  He pushed me out of the way.  He...”

John put his face and his hands.  He needed to regain some control.  When John looked up, unsurprised to see Ronon and Teyla on the other side of Rodney’s bed, though he didn’t remember them coming in.  Now composed he explained for Elizabeth “Rodney was so annoyed with me for getting hurt the last two Valentine’s Days.” John laughed, an empty, dry foreign sound.  “He was so damn pissed off about it last year.  He could be such a sappy romantic when you least expect it.  He was trying to protect me.”

“Rodney is strong,” Teyla said.  “He believe he will pull through.”

“More like stubborn,” Ronon joked as he reached out and squeezed one of Rodney’s limp hands.

“I talked to Carson, he says he believes Rodney will pull through.” Elizabeth said.  

“Yeah.” John said flatly, falling to silence.

Beep.  

Click-psshhh.

Beep.

Beep.  

Click-psshhh.


	4. The Fourth Valentine’s Day

Carson waited.

If Radek was right, and he had no reason to disbelieve him, he was in for a show.  So Carson situated himself opposite of John and Rodney’s beds in a comfortable chair and waited, patiently, for them to wake up.

In time, John’s eyes began to move under his eyelids.  There was a groan before they flickered open.  

Carson stood.

“Oh.  Wow.  That was…” He trailed off looking around frowning at the sound of “his” voice.  Then he turned and saw Rodney, or rather Rodney saw his body on the other bed.  He squawked.

“Rodney?” Carson asked, with an overly cheerful voice.

“What…what?” Rodney, or rather John’s, eyes were wide with shock.  “How…?  Oh God.  This is Cadman all over again, isn’t it.  JOHN!  ARE YOU IN HERE?!”

There was a groan from the other bed, where Rodney’s body was.  Rodney’s eyes opened and…

“What?  What?  You’re...” John’s mouth tried to form the rest of the sentence but shock had taken his voice away.

“You boys adjusting well I see,” Carson said smugly.

“Wait, I’m in him and-”

“-and he’s in me.”

“That sounded wrong,” 

John wagged his-rather Rodney’s-eyebrows at him.

“Don’t wag my eyebrows at me like that.”

Carson laughed.  

“This is that thing.  That thing you asked me to touch.  You said it was a toaster.”  John accused.

“I said no such thing.”

“Yes you did.  You said it was probably a toaster.”

“I said it was probably something harmless, like a toaster.”

“Does this look harmless to you?”  John said.  “I’m in your body!”

“You said you liked my body.”

“From the outside, Rodney.”

“Are you sure about that, Colonel because last night…”

“Enough.” Carson said, holding up a hand.  “Radek is certain he can reverse it and will be ready to do so within the next two hours.”

“Oh, good, that’s a relief.” Rodney said, falling back against the pillows.

“Hm…two hours?”

“Yes,” Carson replied.

“You know, I’m feeling pretty good.  Why don’t we go, stretch our legs.” John suggested.  

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Carson said.

“Yeah, we should probably stay in here in case something else happens,” Rodney said.

“Yeah, but we can watch each other,” John said, then turned to Carson and needlessly repeated, “We can keep an eye on each other.”

“But what if-”

“It’s Valentine’s Day, Rodney.” John said, giving him a look.

“Oooh.  Yeah, we can, uh, you know,” Rodney started in on Carson.

“You two buggers are horrible and quite frankly I don’t want to know anymore.  Two hours.”  Carson said, holding back the curtain.

He’s never seen the two leave so quickly.


	5. The Fifth Valentine’s Day

“Oh.  Oh god.” Rodney said, as John lay panting on the sand next to him.  There was nothing but the sound of his heart beating frantically, John’s post-orgasmic pants, and the ocean waves washing up against the shore.  “That was…that was…”

“…amazing,” John finished.

“Mm-hmm.” Rodney replied.  

“You want to know what’s the best about this?” John rolled back over to face Rodney, his face resting against the blue striped blanket they lay out on the sand.  

“No infirmary.”

“No infirmary,” John agreed.  “No one shot.”

“Or stabbed,” Rodney joined in.  “No sprained ankles.”

“Yeah…though you have to admit, the body switch was fun.”

“The body switch was fun,” Rodney said, but gestured to the island they were on, “but this is even better.  A whole island to ourselves.  No one but you and I.  I’m kind of surprised Elizabeth agreed to let us take the jumper and do this though.”

“I think she’s just tired of visiting us in the infirmary every Valentine’s Day,” John said, running a lazy hand down Rodney’s naked chest.

“Mmm…could be…” Rodney sighed. 

After a beat, Rodney pulled himself up grab the sunblock-then gasped.

“Rodney?” 

“Ugh-ah,” Rodney slowly lowered himself the two inches back down onto the beach blanket.

“No, you didn’t…” John started.

“Uh-huh,” Rodney said, squinting through the pain.  “Threw out my back.”

“Oh for the love of…” John got up and hurried toward the jumper.  He needed to get on the radio.  Also: pants.  He needed to get clothes on him and Rodney and…

And John yelped as he tripped over a fallen log.  His naked body now sprawled out on the pristine beach.

“John?  JOHN!  Are you okay?!”  Rodney strained to sit up a little and see John, but hissing with pain before falling back down on the blanket.

“Uh…about the no sprained ankle part?” John replied.


	6. Bonus & End to Our Story: The Sixth Valentine’s Day

“Elizabeth?” John’s voice came over the radio.

“Yes, John?” Elizabeth replied, as she took her first sip of coffee.  She was still in line at the cafeteria, but she made it a point to always have some caffeine in her before dealing with any unexpected earlier morning calls from Sheppard.

“I’m not feeling so well.  I think I might have gotten that stomach bug that’s going around.” John said.

“Oh.  That’s a shame,” Elizabeth said, picking out a danish.  “Should I have Dr. Beckett make a house call?”

“NO! No.  I’m not that sick. Just…I’ll be off today.  I think I’ll spend the day in bed.”  John explained.  “I’m sure I’ll be fine by tomorrow.”

“Okay.” Elizabeth picked out a couple of alien fruits and began heading over to Teyla’s table.

“Rodney isn’t feeling well either,” John said.  “He won’t be making it to the labs today.”

“I see,” Elizabeth said as she slid into her seat.  “I’m sure you’ll both be feeling well soon.”

“I’m sure.” John replied.

“And I’m equally sure this has nothing to do with your so-called Valentine’s Day Curse.”

There was a pause.

“Nothing whatsoever.”

When John disconnected, Rodney grabbed him and pulled him close.  Snuggled in a cocoon of pillows and blankets, with blankets all over the floor and a dresser laden with food, Rodney said, “Not leaving the bed.”

“Not leaving the bed.” John agreed.


End file.
